for the Welfare of Society are those which are enjoyn'd by God. Such likewise are those that respect ourselves Why the Law is called The Ministration of Death by St. Paul. What he meaneth when he saith He was alive without the Law once but when the Commandment came Sin revived and he died And how the Mosaick Law is termed A Yoke which neither we nor our Fathers were able to bear P. 1. The Contents of the Second Discourse THE Inducements that Christians have to Love the Divine Law. Love was the moving cause of our Lord 's becoming our Law-giver The Greatness of our Lawgivers Person All the troublesome Ceremonies of the Old Law are done away by the Laws of our Lord and this not by his Will alone but by the admirable manifestation of his Goodness and Wisdom How the Jews urging the Everlastingness of their Law is from hence answered and how their way of Speaking is corrected when they say our Lawgiver hath vilified and destroy'd their Laws Only such Laws are enjoyn'd by our Lord as have in them an Intrinsick Goodness or else are for Ends absolutely Good and such as are discernable by every one Though the Jews had some Inferiour Laws suted to their Temper and Climate which did the better fit them for the observance of those Laws which were Moral yet we have not the less reason to Love the Laws of our Lord because they are all Good without any mixture of such Inferiour Laws which may be agreeable to different Climates where Christians Live and which may promote the Precepts of our Lord are not by those Precepts excluded Christian Laws are such also as will in our Obedience much comply with our particular Way and Temper The Moral Laws which were given to the Jews are by our Lord more fully and clearly given The Laws that respect ourselves are properly belonging io the New Testament At least are there only directly and openly injoyn'd The Objection answer'd that so far is the Christian Law from being more clearly given that it requires us to admit of some things relating to Faith which no one living can conceive how they should be The Reasonableness of making our Vnderstandings to yield to our Faith. P. 35. The Contents of the Third Discourse THE Severities of the Christian Laws are not unreasonable neither do they reduce us to such straights as cannot be gone through without a great deal of uneasiness if at all The Design of our Lord is not to beat down our Natural Inclinations and Appetites but to rectifie them Our Dispositions if well managed not averse from a right Improvement The Laws of Christ do not dash the pleasure of Conversation by threatning idle Words with the Day of Judgment The Loving of Enemies while they persist to be injurious is in itself not unmeet but highly equitable in case the History of our Redemption be true Fasting and Abstinence not unreasonable nor the parting with Estates and Lives for the asserting of the Gospel From the Laws of Christ we have a fair way for the Pardon of all Sins What the Law of Faith requires of us How much it is different from the Old Law. What the Law of Repentance is Too many make Faith and Repentance to stand in opposition to the other Laws of our Lord. How the Laws being done away which was Engraven on Stones is to be understood Repentance for Sin cannot without the greatest Absurdity be wrested to the further and more safe committing of Sin. The Examples of the Thief on the Cross and of the Labourers in the Vineyard at the Eleventh Hour consider'd none of the Divine Laws unsuitable to one another These Laws of themselves are grievous unto none As they have relation only to Civil Society and the welfare of Men in this World they do far surpass those of the most noted Lawgivers they by no means do favour the Opinion that Right of Possession is Founded in Grace And that it is Lawful to resist Sovereign Princes in the Maintenance of True Religion They make the Man truly beautiful within P. 66. The Contents of the Fourth Discourse GEneral Motives relating to these Laws altogether To the Conscionable Observance of them Eternal Rewards are promised yet Earthly ones are not excluded For the securing of our Obedience Eternal Punishments are threatned after Death to the neglect of these Laws The Constituting such Punishments is no more than what is meet to be done Stronger Assistances are afforded for the Performance of these Laws than under Moses there were Most Loving Invitations and Affectionate Expressions are joyned with them We have no reason to complain that there are not now under the Gospel-Law those Visible Expressions of Gods Power and Presence as under the Old Law there were Particular Motives relating to these Laws singly and apart Such as are wholly peculiar to the Gospel or else are there more clearly and convincingly urged than ever they were before It is impossible there should be any True Happiness without these Laws From the inward Excellence of them and those admirable Motives annexed to them there is a substantial Proof of their Divinity and Truth No Man hath ever deserved to be so much honoured among Men as our Lord hath done Those who faithfully give up their Names unto him have the Precedence of all others How it comes to pass that since the Law is so good Assistances so great and Motives so taking there should be so many Disobedient Ones P. 114. The Contents of the Fifth Discourse THough the Generality of Men be Wicked and by occasion of these Laws being given shall suffer the greater Torments hereafter yet it would not thereupon have been better that these Laws should not have been given The impious folly of those Men who are willing to flatter themselves with God's being so much a God of Mercy as that he will not destroy them though they walk contrary to his Laws An Explication of I am the Light of the World. Why Miracles were confined to the first Ages of the Church That Prophecy made good viz. The Wolf shall dwell with the Lamb c. The great Goodness of God in making these Laws to reach so wide as the whole World. His great Wisdom and Mercy in putting these his Laws into Writing and enjoyning the frequent Reading and Preaching of them The Reasonableness that these Laws should endure without Abrogation or Change so long as the World shall stand The great expectation which was of this our Lawgiver for so many Ages and in every respect his answering of it may prevail much for Mens Obedience to his Laws The Righteousness and Goodness of these Laws will manifest themselves to those who are sincerely Obedient P. 150. The Contents of the Sixth Discourse NOt a few think themselves secure in their actings if they can shew that some good Men in Holy Writ or some well accounted of since have done the like Examples of Good Men to be imitated no further than
himself afterwards with respect to his Adultery and Murther to say Thou desirest not Sacrifice else would I give it Psal 51. There not being any Sacrifices provided for such Sins And hereupon the Law is called The Ministration of Death when yet to those that were Obedient the Priviledges it gave were many and so for those as for the Excellency which in itself it had might be loved That other Scripture to wit I was alive without the Law once but when the Commandment came Sin revived and I died We if we take it as spoken in the Person of the Apostle and not rather by a Figure for others are not so to understand it as if he were the worse for the Law and might date his Death from it But thus While he look'd upon himself and his own Actions without a due Examination of them according to the exactness of the Law he might think himself to be in very good plight and free from danger But when he compared his Actions and Performances with the exceeding Accurateness of the Law the Actions which before look'd well appear'd sinful and he saw his Danger and Demerits to be very great Whereas the Law in itself was holy and the Commandment holy and just and good and so for its own worth might be loved Your last Scripture is this viz. That the Mosaick Law is termed A Yoke which neither We nor our Fathers were able to bear To this it may be replyed That we are not to take these words in a strict sense as if the Apostles and Jews could not bear that Yoke but thus They could not bear it without difficulty For we know that they had born it for many Generations from the time of Moses to that day Besides Neither was it a Yoke absolutely consider'd For God in the giving of these Laws did as a great Man interprets it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Acts 13.18 bear with some of their Manners which the use of those Times had taught them and made his Sanctions suitable in many things to their being under-age as it were and too weak as yet for more perfect Institutions But it is therefore term'd A Yoke with reference to that Freedom and those very great Priviledges which are brought unto us by Christ In Comparison of These it is little better than a Bondage When yet before it was a great Honour to the Jews and such as They only had a share in The Heathens as they were Heathens having nothing to do in it You have Theophilus what at present I think may be replyed to the Scriptures you brought Yourself could possibly to your own Satisfaction better have answered them But if you are any way pleased with what I have said and can reap though but the least of that Spiritual Advantage you in the beginning of our Discourse spake of I shall be the less solicitous for the excusing of my Failures DISCOURSE the Second The Contents THE Inducements that Christians have to Love the Divine Law. Love was the moving cause of our Lords becoming our Law-giver The Greatness of our Lawgivers Person All the troublesome Ceremonies of the Old Law are done away by the Laws of our Lord and this not by his Will alone but by the admirable manifestation of his Goodness and Wisdom How the Jews urging the Everlastingness of their Law is from hence answered and how their way of Speaking is Corrected when they say our Lawgiver hath vilified and destroy'd their Laws Only such Laws are enjoyn'd by our Lord as have in them an Intrinsick Goodness or else are for Ends absolutely Good and such as are discernable by every one Though the Jews had some Inferiour Laws suted to their Temper and Climate which did the better fit them for the observance of those Laws which were Moral yet we have not the less reason to Love the Laws of our Lord because they are all Good without any mixture of such Inferiour Laws Laws which may be agreeable to different Climates where Christians Live and which may promote the Precepts of our Lord are not by those Precepts excluded Christian Laws are such also as will in our Obedience much comply with our particular Way and Temper The Moral Laws which were given to the Jews are by our Lord more fully and clearly given The Laws that respect ourselves are properly belonging to the New Testament At least are there only directly and openly injoyn'd The Objection answer'd that so far is the Christian Law from being more clearly given that it requires us to admit of some things relating to Faith which no one living can conceive how they should be The Reasonableness of making our Vnderstandings to yield to our Faith. THEOPHILVS I Am very glad Eubulus I have once more your good Company and from the privacy of the place the calmness of the Weather and the leisure you at present have you will I hope go on where Yesterday you left off For I have a great desire to hear the Inducements which Christians have to Love the Divine Law. EVBVLVS YOur desire shall be complied with not because I think I can so much inform you but because those things which we already know are made more Active upon us when we hear they are the Sentiments of others as well as our own Theoph. You will make whatever Truths after this manner shall be quickned in me to belong to yourself as being Watered at least if not Planted by you Besides since the things that lie only in our thoughts do not usually so much affect us as they do when we bring them out into Words it is to be imagined that yourself will not be wholly destitute of benefit while you are kind unto me Eubul Well then with Prayers that it may be for the Ghostly Health of us both we will proceed The Inducements that Christians have for the Loving the Divine Law which are far greater than what the Jews had may I presume be collected from the consideration of these things viz. The Lawgiver The Laws themselves and those Motives which are annexed unto them for the securing of our Obedience As to what concerns the Lawgiver it may very much contribute to the Love of the Christian Law That Love was the moving Cause of his becoming our Lawgiver The Punishment which Mankind for the breach of the Command in Paradise was from Gods Justice to suffer the Son of God was willing in our Nature to undergo himself And though God the Father if he had so pleased might have refus'd that any should bear the Punishment besides those who had deserv'd it for the Law when it is Trangress'd doth require that the Offenders should suffer in their own Persons The Soul that Sinneth it shall dye yet he was pleased to accept of his Son in our stead Accounting the Reverence of his Laws which by the Sins of Mankind had been Violated to be sufficiently maintain'd by his Death But on this condition only would God accept of his
Understanding when we read them fulfilled in our Lords being conceived of the Holy and born of a Virgin Mother And truly the Prediction Micah 5.2 Of his being born at Bethleem may move us with a more than ordinary delight when we consider how strangely God's Providence was engaged for the fulfilling it All that Taxing which was laid upon the Jewish Nation by Augustus and which required every one to repair to his own City to be Taxed may appear in a special manner to be order'd by God for the bringing Mary unto Bethleem to be delivered of her Son. It was a great way that Joseph and Mary were to go From N zareth in Galile to the City of David in Judea And it might seem ill to have hapned unto Mary at a time when her Condition rather required Rest than was fit for so great a Journey and this too as is not improbable in the depth of Winter But God somtimes is accomplishing his own Will and great things for us when Affairs appear to be cross and unhappy Yea and can order the Councils of Princes at a great distance from them to carry on these Designs which He in his Providence hath laid but which never entred their Hearts to imagine And so it is here We see no means how Mary should have been at Bethleem delivered of her Son there had not the Taxation at that very Time been enjoyn'd Which may shew that She and Joseph had no Thoughts of fulfilling a Prophecy by their journey thither But hence it was that the Son of David was born in the City of David and Divine Wisdom had ordered that of this Man it should be said He was Born there If we look to those Prophecies which were of our Lord's Suffering and Death they are such as may give us a great deal of satisfaction in a Crucified Saviour That of Esai is very express in Chap. 53. He is despised and rejected of Men a Man of Sorrows and acquainted with Grief He hath born our Griefs and carried our Sorrows He was wounded for our Transgressions He was bruised for our iniquities How exactly is his Picture as it were drawn by this Prophet and how pleased may we be with the Likeness though it represents him in Grief and Sorrows So likewise in Daniel Chap. 9.26 After sixty two Weeks shall the Messias be cut off but not for himself Which things are also a good and just Interpretation of our Lord's Behaviour under his Sufferings For should he not have suffered in our stead but died only as our Example and as a Testimony of the Truth of his Doctrine as Socinus and his Followers would have it some things I speak it reverently would not have born a good Colour nor at all have been reconcileable to that Perfection which we must own to be in our Lord. I will instance in one and that is his Sweat in the Garden Consider this without the thoughts of his dying for our Sins and say whether it betrays not too great a fear of Death whether there may not seem to have been greater Instances of undaunted Courage from some Heathen Heroes and from some who have born the Name of Christians than from Christ himself That He should be so much concern'd at a single Death when he knew he died for an Example to others of not fearing Death upon a good occasion what from these Mens Opinions can we think of it But then when we consider that He was wounded for our Transgressions that he struggled with the Wrath of God which was due to all Men and was never to have end that he trod the Wine-press alone and none was with him The uncommonness of his Sweat which was as great drops of Blood may shew forth the greatness of the Burthen that was laid upon him and may make us to wonder at the Power that could at all bear up under such Pressures but by no means to accuse him of Timorousness because his Garments are thus died with Blood. So great and reverend is that Action or Passion rather of our Lord with respect to his Suffering in our stead which otherwise will require a good Invention to make it appear not mean. Add to this that Expression of his My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Had he died only for an Example unto us and a Confirmation of the Truth of what he declared why should he thus have cried out Should we ourselves be called to die for our Holy Religion I cannot say that we might lawfully thus cry unto God We ought rather to submit unto his Will with hopes that he had not forsaken us Somthing else then must be the cause of these his words viz. The pouring out of the full Vials of Gods Wrath upon Him as upon one that bare the Iniquities of us all And this will render his words highly apposite unto and expressive of his Passion which otherwise might seem beyond it So that though we are to conceive of our Lord's Death as an Example unto us for he is said to suffer for us leaving us an Example that we should follow his steps yet as in his Life there are some things above an Example so in his Death likewise there are which are placed beyond our Imitation We may imitate his Meekness and Patience and Love to Mankind but the height of his Sufferings for the Sins of the World we cannot And some Expressions betokening the Greatness of his Passion whether from his Words or Bloody Sweat must stand alone as highly agreeable to the State of his Agony but not so fit for any besides Himself Thus amiable are these Prophecies to the Considerate Reader not only in so exactly foretelling his Sufferings and Death and thereby vindicating the Honour of our Religion against the Jews who upbraid us with those his Sufferings and Death but also in shewing forth a true Beauty in the now-mention'd Deportment of our Saviour which an horrid Opinion of some who call themselves Christians doth tend to make very unbecoming Nor may the Prophecies of the manner of his Death be less satisfactory unto us to wit They pierced my Hands and my Feet Psal 22.17 And Zach. 12.10 They shall look upon me whom they have pierced For how rightly are these fulfilled in his suffering the Roman Crucifixion the Jews having no sort of Punishment in which the Undergoers were thus pierced And this Death being inflicted by the Roman Power directs us to the Satisfaction of another Prophecy viz. The Scepter shall not depart from Judah till Shiloh come But the Power of Life and Death which is the most proper Signification of Scepter being wholly taken from the Jews and exercised in Judea by the Romans may shew that the Messias was come before according to that Prophecy And very remarkable it is that though Jerusalem before our Lord's Birth was Conquered by Pompey the Great yet throughout the Life of Hircanus the High Priest the Reign of Herod the Great and Archelaus
they have the Laws of Christ for their Rule and Warrant They can of themselves lay no Obligation upon us The Holy Men we read of in Scripture were not sent into the World to be a Rule to all Others in the Things they acted The Vncertainty of Examples very great Their Insufficiency None of the Actions of our Blessed Lord from his Example merely and without a Law did lay any Obligation upon us to Imitate them The Laws of Christ reach to all Moral Actions No Examples of Goodness beyond what is included in those Laws Inferences concerning the Examples in Holy Writ In those things where the Law of God is Silent Prudence is to be our Guide Examples though of themselves they lay no Obligation upon us are yet of use Those which bear the Image of the Laws of Christ are given us for Incentives and Encouragements of our Obedience When Divine Laws are question'd as to their Sense Examples upon occasion may be Interpretations of them By Examples we may be instructed to do our Duties in a decent and becoming way Decency added unto Sincerity may make its reward the greater Examples are Registred in Holy Scripture for the Honour of those whose they were Our Condition the more sure than it would have been if we had had none in whose Steps we might tread By comparing Examples with our Rule we shall quickly find whether they will hold Good for our Practice or no. P. 175. The Contents of the Seventh Discourse COncerning the Divine Law as taken in a larger Sense Of the Historical part of Scripture particularly of the Creation All other Opinions concerning the Being of the World are cold and unaffecting Of the Fall of Man. It gives Light to many things which otherwise we should never have known the reason of The sad effects of our Fall are in great measure corrected by God's Mercy and made Comfortable to us Many things in the dark and mingled with falsities in profane Authors we may from hence more clearly discern Sacred History shews forth God's immediate Hand and plainly tells us that he punished and rewarded for such and such reasons Of the History of our Redemption How wonderful it is and what a Sacredness runs through all the Circumstances of our Lord's Conception Birth Life Death Resurrection and Ascension The great evidence of these things Of the Prophetical part of Scripture Especially of those Prophecies relating to our Blessed Saviour As Divine Truth is eminently seen in all of them so the quick and various workings of Providence for the fulfilling of some of them are very delightful The Predictions of the Heathen Oracles much different from these The Sibylline Prophecies of suspected Credit Of the Adhortative part of Holy Writ God hath used the most Taking words for the prevailing with Men for Obedience In the Gospel there is nothing wanting that may work upon the Soul of Man. Of the Devotional part of Sacred Scripture It consisteth of such Services as were fit for Men to pay unto their God and needed not Secresie to shelter them from an Honest Ear or Chast Eye Devotion raised to a much greater perfection by having our Lord and the Holy Spirit so nearly concerned in it Those persons quite mistake what they read in Sacred Scripture who find a pleasure therein without any respect to the Divine Law properly as such What we are to think of those who are conscientiously Obedient to the Divine Law but yet find not that Delight therein which Earthly things do frequently give them and who hereupon are very apt to interpret their Love to God's Precepts to be unsincere and such as will be rejected The great reasonableness and Benefit of Holy Meditation P. 210. The Contents of the Eighth Discourse DIsobedience is a Pollution It brings Disorder into a Man. It tends to make the Almighty to minister to his Creatures in the vilest Offices How God cannot be made to serve How he may He is pleas'd in Holy Writ to speak after the manner of Men that so He may condescend to our Vnderstandings and excite our Affections How He is made to serve in His Holy Name How in His Works The Creation sensible of this Slavery and God very much displeas'd with it Disobedience of an Extensive Nature It affects a kind of Eternity It 's highly Disingenuous God necessitates none to Disobedience Why He will not force Men into Obedience Why he generally cuts them not off P. 257. The Contents of the Ninth Discourse THe Plea of those is vain who say they never sinned maliciously against the Almighty nor wish'd his Greatness and Power to be less The Difference betwixt Rebellion against God and that against a Temporal Prince Disobedience a defilement in whomsoever it is Not the same Pollution in all Sins What the Sins of Good Men are and how known to be theirs The Sins of wicked Men of a deep Dye wherein they differ from those of pious Men. The Difference between wicked Men How of the worst sort some are more open some more secret in their Sins How the Sins of the less evil sort are to be measur'd The same fairness of Converse not equally innocent unto many A Sin may be a pardonable one to some when the very same to the Eye and Opinion of Men will not be so to others What we are to think of the Heinous Sins of Good Men Registred in Holy Scripture No reason from them for wicked Men to think better of their own Sins God will not esteem the Sins of his Children which are in themselves as great as and the same with the Sins of other Men to be therefore the less because they are committed by those who are his Children How to make a Judgment of our own Sins P. 288. ERRAT Pag. 282. lin 21. read them for him THE TRUE NATURE OF THE Divine-Law AND OF DISOBEDIENCE thereunto c. The Contents THE Occasion of the Discourse What is to be understood by the Divine Law. The Difference between the Law of Old and That which was given afterwards The Laws which enjoyn'd Duties towards God were such as we would in Right Reason wish should be towards a Prince and Lawgiver Concerning some Laws which might seem to have no real Goodness in them but Cruelty rather And others which seemed to proceed from the Will of God meerly as Supream without any Reason and consequently without any Love to his Creatures Of the Precepts which require Fear and are enforced upon the account that God is Terrible How these can consist with Love which casteth out Fear The Laws which a Rational Man would desire for the Welfare of Society are those which are enjoyn'd by God. Such likewise are those that respect ourselves Why the Law is called The Ministration of Death by St. Paul. What he meaneth when he saith He was alive without the Law once but when the Commandment came Sin revived and he died And how the Mosaick Law is termed A Yoke which
Rewards and his immediate Protection If thou shalt hearken unto the Voice of the Lord to observe and do all his Commandments the Lord shall command the blessing upon thee in thy Store Houses and in all that thou settest thy Hand unto And he shall bless thee in the Land which the Lord thy God giveth thee He shall give thee Rain in due season to multiply thy Corn and thy Wine so much that the Threshing shall reach unto the Vintage and the Vintage reach unto the Ploughing and thou shalt dwell safely in thy Land And so signal was this safety which they enjoyed that when for the Worshipping of God all the Males were frequently to repair to Jerusalem though their Borders were left Naked and defenceless yet never did their Enemies take that opportunity either to invade or any way molest them According to that Word of Exod. 34.24 Neither shall any man desire thy Land when thou shalt go up to appear before the Lord thy God thrice in the year And lest their Love to these Laws should from Earthly Prosperity sink into Carelesness as worldly Blessings make oftentimes even that Obedience to be forgotten for which they were sent as a Reward it was kept awake and taught to be Reverential by some miraculous things which attended these Laws Such were the Vrim and the Thummim on the Breast-plate of the High-Priest which when consulted by meet Persons on weighty concerns did by a wonderful power afford answers The Ark of the Testimony from which Oracles were given by an audible Voice The Sacred Fire of the Altar which falling as it were like a Lion on the Sacrifices presently consumed them The appearance of a Cloud somtimes on the Tabernacle and afterward on the Temple to which we may add the open and remarkable effects of Gods Power manifest in Battles and in particular Revenges from Heaven upon presumptuous Sinners God would not have done so wondrously in relation to his Laws had they not been of very high account with him and this might well keep up Life and Vigour in Considering and Devout Mens Love towards them I have Theophilus in my speaking to these Laws asked of you what in Right Reason and according to a perfect Harmony of Things you would have the Duties towards a Prince and Lawgiver to be And I have ventured to say that a Rational Man for the Welfare of Society would wish for such and such Laws And this I think I might well do without offering any injury to these Laws by making Human Reason to be the Judge of them For they are rightly agreeable to our Nature and the true Sentiments thereof But though they are so and by all must be acknowledg'd so to be yet no Nation on Earth was so happy as to have them so established as the Jews had Hereupon it is said Deut. 4.6 Keep ye these Statutes and do these Judgments for this is your Wisdom and Vnderstanding in the sight of the Nations which shall hear all these Statutes and say Surely this great Nation is a Wise and Vnderstanding People for what Nation is there so great which hath Statutes and Judgments so Righteous as all this Law which I set before you this Day And very observable it is as to what I have been speaking viz. That in times of Captivity when the Laws of the Conquer'd are usually changed if not wholly destroyed by the Conquerours these Laws found such favour abroad that they were never as to any part of them alter'd And that the Jewish Nation lived to see the Periods of three noted Monarchies succeeding one another and in an uninterrupted Line did itself continue still the same flourishing and happy unless when careless and disobedient cannot be ascribed to any thing but the Excellency of these Laws and Gods more than ordinary Blessing attending them All which things Theophilus being rightly weighed may shew forth the Madness of Marcion and some others of the Gnostick Crew who impiously pronounced the God of the Old Testamrnt to be an Evil One Morose and Cruel and of a different Nature quite from him to whom the New Testament belongeth Although greater Love is display'd by Christ than under Moses could be discern'd yet that the Old Law proceeded from a Good God who was Merciful and Gracious and who made those his Laws suitable to the Jewish Nation and pertinently significant of better things to come all certainly who will be righteous and considerate in their Thoughts must needs confess with a Detestation and Abhorrence of such Marcionitish Blasphemy Theoph. But since all these Laws whether relating to God or Men are so Excellent and so Worthy to be Loved Why doth St. Paul call them the Ministration of Death 2 Cor. 3.7 And why doth he say he was alive without the Law once but when the Commandment came Sin Revived and he Dyed Rom. 7.9 as if he were the worse for the Law and might date his Death from it Why lastly doth S. Peter call the Mosaick Institution a Yoke which neither we nor our Fathers were able to bear Act. 15.10 Eubul In answer to your first Scripture wherein the Law is called the Ministration of Death some understand it thus not as if the Law brought no Priviledges with it or rather Death but so as that all the promises which were made to the Obedience of the Law were such as had relation to this Life only and were all terminated in Death And therefore it is observed that the Word Life in all the Books of Moses is never taken otherwise then for this Temporal Life And all the rewards are mention'd only under the Name of Temporal Blessings as may be seen in Deut. 28. and other places Not saith a Worthy Man of our own but that Eternal Rewards were in good measure Revealed to some Excellent Persons of Old and the frequenter afterwards as the coming of Christ drew nearer but these Revelations though vouchsafed by God under the Law did not properly belong to the Law and in strictness of Speaking were not of it It might therefore be well called the Ministration of Death in case the Rewards belonging unto it had thus an end and did cease in Death However the Law might justly have this Appellation because as I before mentioned in the primary Sanction of it Death was the Punishment of Disobedience Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the Book of the Law to do them And though God was pleased to mitigate this Severity in allowing Sacrifices to be an Expiation for some Sins yet the great Transgressions of the Law how repentant soever the Committers might be found no such favour Only lesser Offences and such as proceeded from Imprudence rather than Design were those for which Sacrifices were indulg'd Whilst the Souls that did ought presumptuously whether Strangers or born in the Land were to be cut off from among the People Numb 15.30 31. Which as it may seem made David
things which God was pleased to bestow to the upright Observance of them and with relation also to the more severe Commands which he justly might have laid upon Men they have been comparatively good i. e. they shewed forth the Favour and Kindness of God unto Men. And might they not then be loved for the far greater Severities that might have been enjoyn'd and for the many and great Temporal Blessings which Obedience to them had brought as its Reward Surely they might 3. The Significations and Effects which these Laws had were excellent Circumcision was Instituted by God as a particular Mark by which the Jews were sealed to be his People Thus Gen. 17.11 it is called The Token of the Covenant betwixt God and Them to the intent that He should be their God and They his People And this possibly as a Learned Person observes might be the reason why God would have this peculiar Mark or Sign to be impress'd upon them to their pain and to be admitted and undergone with a kind of shamefacedness viz. That Nature might not seem to dictate it nor meerly the Commands of Men to enjoyn it but that it might be owned to proceed from God who by such an unthought-of Mark among Men would seal that People unto himself And though Circumcision by some of the Seed of Abraham Ishmael and Esau and the Sons of Ketura was introduced into some other Nations afterward yet this hindred not the true Stock of Abraham Isaac and Jacob and their Posterity to be Marked for God's Peculiar Insomuch that by way of reproach they called the Nations round about them the Vncircumcised and were back again themselves through Hatred and Derision termed Verpi Curti and Recutiti the Circumcised Neither was Circumcision destitute of somthing that might signifie Him to be holy and good from whom it came It denoted a Purity and Cleanness to those who bore it Therefore it is said Deut. 30.6 The Lord thy God will Circumcise thine Heart and the Heart of thy Seed to Love the Lord thy God. Of which import of the word that Instance Lev. 19.23 is an unquestionable proof When ye come into the Land ye shall count the Fruit thereof as Vncircumcised Three years shall it be as Vncircumcised unto you it shall not be eaten of but in the fourth year all the Fruit thereof shall be Holy to praise the Lord withal And might it not also Theophilus highly commend Circumcision that it was so appositely ordered by God for the continual bringing to their Memory the Promise which he made unto Abraham Now that Promise was concerning his Seed Which Seed in the chief Acceptation is to be understood of Christ who is therefore in Holy Scripture called the Promised Seed Of this Promise Circumcision was a Seal and might be justly thought to be made on That part of the Body that as oft as they did Circumcise their Children they might be put in Mind of Him who as to the Flesh was to come from the Loyns of Abraham Wherefore though Circumcision in itself considered might seem to carry very little of Mercy and Goodness in it but the contrary rather yet as it thus entitled them the Peculiar People of God directed them to an internal Purity and betokened That Seed in which They and all the Nations on Earth should be blessed it might justly have a great Expression of their Love. Look we in the next place upon Sacrifices I will not here enquire into their first Rise whether Men began them of their own accord and God afterward improved them unto Mysterious Ends Or whether they primarily sprung from a Divine Command with immediate respect to those Ends. It is enough to our present purpose to say That some of them under Moses did import a great Friendship and Familiarity from God unto Man and the keeping House as it were with them on Earth Thus the Altar was his Table and what was offered thereon was as his Meat And other things in the Tabernacle first and afterwards in the Temple betokened a Dwelling-House As Spoons Bowls Covers a Candlestick and its Lamps and such-like Some other of these Sacrifices were in many cases An Expiation for Sins against God And by the Blood of the Beast thus slain the Life of the Offender was spared For the Law according to the strictest Sanction maketh Death the Punishment of even the least Disobedience as that of Deut. 27.26 doth shew And this Blood of Bulls and Goats was by the Will and Mercy of the Lawgiver so far a Real Expiation for these Sins as that it did in the Apostle's words Sanctifie to the purifying of the Flesh But then yet further These Sacrifices were Typical also and did prefigure the pretious Blood of Jesus Christ which was to be a more Noble Expiation for the Sins of the World even those Sins for which there were allowed no Sacrifices under the Law and this not only to the purifying of the Flesh but to the purging of the Conscience from Dead Works to serve the Living God. And although we may think that this was not understood generally by the Jews who expected a Messias that should be a Glorious Prince upon Earth yet that it was in great measure understood by some more eminently Religious among them and particularly by our Psalmist who hath many Prophesies tending this way and applied by the Holy Ghost in the New Testament to this very thing we have no reason to doubt And so though the shedding of Blood in Sacrifice might seem to have nothing of good in it and indeed God himself is said not to delight in the Blood of Bullocks and Lambs which he could not be said to do had it any Essential Moral Goodness in it yet as these Sacrifices betokened God's Dwelling among them and by their being slain the Lives of Men were spared and also his Blood presignified which should be shed for the Sins of the World it might well have this Expression O how I love thy Law Neither let the shedding of Blood be Objected by any as a want of Mercy in these Laws to those Brutal Creatures whose Blood they required to be shed and disagreeing to that Title which in Holy Writ is given unto God to wit The Preserver of Beast as well as of Man. There are Theophilus who by all means will have these Creatures to be meer Machins altogether destitute of Sense And were it thus there would in reality be no occasion to move any question concerning these Laws in this respect But till Men are convinced that Brutes are thus insensible and that notwithstanding all the signs of pain when they are wounded there yet really is no pain to them which will never be generally believed and none can be blamed if it be not this conceit will in the present case stand in no stead at all Nay the falseness of it may from what we but now said be fully evidenced viz. That the Blood of the Beast as being his
preserve our Lives by no means to lose them However let not this Command of our Lord which requires us to part with Estates and Lives rather than deny him be faulted as too rigid and hard while the Rewards are so much beyond the Pains and while so many of Those who have thus suffered have had such Assistances and Joys afforded them even in the midst of their Sufferings that a Man would almost wish for their Sorrows could he but have their Joys together with them From all which it may appear Theophilus that the Air as was objected is not too pure to be breath'd in and that they are not unreasonable Heights of Duty which are required of us Neither may it disturb us that this our Work is not without difficulty to be begun and in like manner for some time to be carried on by us For it is in a sort a Priviledge which Angels have not to testifie unto Pains yea even unto Death itself the Sincerity of Obedience Which Testification of Sincerity although it ariseth from an Imperfection of Human Nature will yet be very acceptable unto God possibly no less than that of the Holy Ones Above which is wholly free from all such Conflicts And while the chief Intent of our Lawgiver is to make us Pious towards God Composed in our own Breasts Loving unto others and Loved again by them Perfect as our Father in Heaven is perfect who makes his Sun to rise on the Evil and on the Good and meting only the same measure to others which hath first been meted by the Love and Compassion of our Lord unto us we must one would think use very much Violence to the better Inclinations of our Souls if we do not entirely love these Laws As for mine own part Theophilus will you give me leave to speak my Heart freely to you my Love is so great to them that methinks I would obey them all not so much because I am commanded to do it as because they are every way in themselves so worthy to be loved I could wish that they were even one with my Soul and that all my Thoughts and Actions might proceed not more from Life than from Them. And so far would I be from questioning the goodness of them that I would as soon doubt whether it were good to Live and be Happy So dear are they unto me yea so much better than Life itself Theoph. I am much prevail'd upon by the Reasons you have given and your last Affectionate Words add so much a further weight to those Reasons that they appear to me not to be more the Issues of your Brain than of your Heart And therefore you may on good Grounds presume that they will be convincing to others when they have first been so to yourself But though I acknowledge the Laws of our Lord to require most reasonable things of us and do find that they truly have an high place in my Esteem and Love yet I 'll confess to you Eubulus much dejected I am somtimes when I reflect upon my many Failures Resolve indeed I do for the greatest Care and Circumspection but yet my Sins do daily increase upon me and what will it boot me to love these Laws when every day I transgress them To own them so admirably fitted for the perfecting of our Nature and the refining of our Practise when I see mine own Nature so imperfect under them and my Practcie so impure in Comparison of them Eubul What you now say Theophilus makes way for and will best be answer'd by the Consideration of the Fourth thing viz. That from these Laws we have a fair way for the Pardon of all Sins Most perfect these Laws are as you have heard but by reason of that weakness which is within us and those many strong Temptations which are without they are not like to be perfectly obeyed All that we can do is as it were a great way off to behold and admire that perfection which we cannot of ourselves attain unto and to grieve that we daily and hourly some way or other have Sinn'd against it But yet there is hope in Israel concerning this thing Our Blessed Lord knowing our frame and make and seeing that our strength and abilities are but small hath added two other Laws of Faith and Repentance in which we may find some cheering in respect of those many Breaches of the Divine Laws which lie as a weight upon our Souls That of Faith requires thus much of us That we believe in Christ as a Saviour who by his precious Blood for us Shed hath appeased Gods Wrath and obtain'd Remission for all the Sins of Men and for ours in that number And from the mighty importance of this Law and the infinite benefits it affordeth unto us the whole Gospel and all the Laws thereof are in a comprehensive Word called the Law of Faith. And in this respect it is much different from the Old Law. Perfect Obedience was required by That and because perfection of Obedience is necessarily grounded upon a perfection of Nature the Law seemeth therefore to have been the Rule not of our Works only but of our Nature also which at the Creation was committed pure into our Hands But this Law of Faith by reason of Human Natures having been perfect in Christ and having Done also without the least failure whatsoever was Incumbent on the Representative of Mankind to do and as united with the Divine Nature having suffered likewise what Punishment was Due to the Sins of Men this Law I say of Faith doth Command that we should not rely upon any Righteousness of our own not yet Despair for any Sin whether belonging to our Nature or more particularly to our own Persons but should have our Eyes upon Him who alone by his Merits hath purchased Salvation for us The Law of Repentance is this viz. That we truly be sorry for what Sins soever we commit and do heartily endeavour an amendment of Life And this shall be available through the Death of Christ for our Pardon Repentance shall not Theophilus be unto Sins after the same manner as Sacrifices in Moses Law were Not the small Sins only shall be done away but the great ones also shall no less For he who hath called us unto Repentance hath been a propitiation for all the Sins of Mankind alike for those of a deeper Dye as well as those of a lighter Stain And his Blood is against the greatest Offences and the smallest Infirmities equally Efficacious Of Old if a Man had unwillingly Kill'd his Brother and was truly sorry for it the avenger of Blood was notwithstanding allowed to Slay him if he could overtake him before he reach'd to the City of Refuge The Sin here if it were not rather an unhappiness was so far imputed as That he must dye for it if another could run faster than he which might happen to be a thing beyond his power to prevent And though this might
how low is That in Comparison of This I am he that prepare Eternal Mansions for you in the Heavens That reserve for you an Inheritance incorruptible and undefiled which fadeth not away A Crown which withereth not And hence our Lord is called the Prince of Life Acts 3.10 Not only because he was dead and is alive and for ever will live but also because he was Author of Eternal Life and made it the Reward of Obedience to his Laws And when our Lord shall purchase our poor Obedience at so excessive a Value as the giving of Heaven and the Glory thereof when he might justly command more Rigorous Services without any Rewards further than merely our having of Life and being preserved while we do them what a mighty motive is it for Obedience to these Laws and for our Love to them also Mean is the being Blessed in the City and in the Field in respect of the Happiness that Eye hath not seen nor Ear heard and that hath not ent'red into the Heart of Man to conceive To have Life Eternal and all Joys attending it so that with Improved Souls and Spiritual Bodies we cannot wish them to be greater nor fear them to be less Joys must sutably following a Vertuous Life and so refin'd and sacred that they are worthy of an Immortality for the being possess'd how much doth it surpass a Life's being long in an Earthly Canaan and those more common and sensible Blessings that were given to it Though yet these Earthly Rewards are not wholly excluded by the Heavenly neither but when they shall be expedient for us we shall have them Eternal Blessings under the Gospel do assure us of Temporal so far forth as they shall be for our Good as Temporal under the Mosaick Law did presignifie Eternal ones that should follow For he that spared not his own Son but gave him for us all How shall be not in Him freely give us all things And herein upon much better ground are we placed than Those were who made Virtue to be its own Reward and would have Men even in the midst of Torments though there were no hope of an Alleviation to think that they had a sufficiency of Happiness from it alone This was high and magnificent Talk indeed and if secure from ever being put into Practice it might have rested in Speculation only Virtue would not have been discredited thereby But small Comfort it carried with it when Pains and Troubles were actually to be undergone And a Man on the Rack might almost be thought not un-wise if for the obtaining of ease he would let go such an Happiness For more commended surely is the observance of the Laws of Christ which includeth in it all sorts of Virtue Our Obedience is indeed to be maintain'd if occasion there were even to the loss of all Earthly Enjoyments but then it often in this World hath Plenty and Honour as its Attendants and Reward Or if it so shall be that God in his Wisdom shall suffer it on every Hand to be encompass'd with Afflictions it yet hath somthing to sustain it besides the meer reflecting upon itself to wit the assurance that however its condition at the present be strait and difficult it will not always be so God can and it may be he will give Relaxation and Ease here but if this he shall not do there shall certainly after Death be Joys sufficient when these short Troubles shall be abundantly made up by an Happiness which never shall have an end And this may afford a firm support to Virtue and Administer a Cheerfulness even in the Valley of the Shadow of Death Who is it then that can refuse Obedience to the Laws of our Lord when he thus brings Life and Immortality to Light and promiseth them as Rewards to our Obedience And if the Excellency of the Laws themselves will not prevail upon the Man for his Love how can he stand out against the Happiness that attendeth them Those Christians that endeavour to put far from them this Happiness by esteeming the Obedience to be Low and Mercenary which hath respect to a Reward I very much pity as being such who through sad error deny to themselves the greatest comfort of their Life but very much blame them also in that as much as in them lies they devest the Holy Laws of their Inestimable Ornament and would take from us the Joy that is set before us which was the great support to our Lord in his enduring the Cross and despising the Shame and so may justly be an Encouragement to Vs in the doing of his Will Especially since by reason of our Weakness and Imperfection we have little reason to let go what may so strongly excite us unto and so sweetly confirm us in our Duty But Theophilus for the further securing of Obedience to these Laws there are Eternal Punishments after Death threatned to the Disobedient It is better saith our Lord to enter into Life Maimed than having two Hands to go into Hell into the Fire that never shall be quenched Where their Worm dieth not and where their Fire is not quenched There being a Worm to Gnaw the Man declareth that there is Torment and there being a worm not failing nor dying declareth the perpetuity of the Torment there being a Fire to burn denoteth pain and there being a Fire not quenchable for so the Words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifie denoteth an Everlasting Duration of that pain In like manner are we to understand those Words of St. Matthew Chap. 25.46 They shall go into Everlasting Punishment i. e. They shall go into that which shall never cease nor have end The Law of Old did indeed in its strictest constitution affix a Curse to wit Death upon every one that continued not in all things Written therein to do them But yet that Rigour was so far Mitigated that when less Punishments were allowed for some Sins Lustings though still forbidden might seem to have no Penalty at all imposed or else were thought to be wip'd off in Course by the Daily Sacrifices Hereupon it was that the Jews if they could abstain from outward Miscarriages were little concerned for inward Rectitude a freedom from Punishment rendring the Law of no weight with them But it is not so in the Laws of our Lord. They cannot be esteem'd to lose their efficacy for want of Punishment annexed Whosoever shall break one of these least Commands and shall teach Men so shall be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven i. e. He shall have no place in it shall be despised and rejected by God in the Day of Judgment Even the Looking upon a Woman to lust after her and the being Angry with a Brother without a Cause are esteemed by our Lawgiver in the same rank with Adultery and Murder and shall be obnoxious to the same kind of Punishment with them Which is well signified by the words in St. Matth.
5.22 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He shall be liable to the Judgment viz. The Court of the Twenty Three Elders where the Punishment was Capital though in a more mild manner than in the Council viz. of the Sanhedrim or in the Vally of Hinnom denoted there by the Expression of Hell-fire And therefore the least Punishment hereafter being such as answers to Death here importeth no less than Death Eternal though a lesser degree thereof than what shall be inflicted upon greater Sins Theoph. But can this Motive be said any way to prevail for our Love to these Laws It may excite indeed a Dread but not likely our Love. Eubul Yet Theophilus let things be seriously considered and even from This Motive how dreadful soever it may at first view appear there will be reason to love these Laws For the Constituting such Punishments is no more than what is meet to be done Where the Laws are in themselves so every way good and where there are Eternal Rewards promised to the Observance of them you will say when they are disobey'd that it is but fit there should be Penalties inflicted and these Penalties such as shall be answerable to the Offences committed Now the greatness of the Offences is to be gathered from the exceeding Riches of Gods Bounty viz. Everlasting Rewards held out unto Men on Terms so excellent and to Rational Natures so truly agreeable If These shall be despised and cast behind their backs the Sin is of a very great height and what Punishment will so rightly sute it as the contrary to that Eternal Happiness which they have rejected viz. Eternal Misery The measure of Gods Justice is to these Men not greater than the abundant Goodness was which they so ungratefully refused They shall not be thrown deeper in Hell than by the Will of God they might have been raised in Heaven Nor shall they continue longer in Punishments than they should have done in Joys Now these things in Speculation must be acknowledged to carry in them a dueness of proportion and to be therefore bountiful as indeed every thing in God and in his Actings is even his Justice no less than his Mercy Only we are weak and sinful and so cannot over quickly discern it But to impartial Consideration it will at length shew itself so to be But that which comes more near us and may more move our Love is this viz. That the Intent of threatning these Punishments is primarily not that they should be born but that they should be escaped Self-preservation is a thing so natural unto Men that the fears of losing their Welfare and Being shall have a more quick touch upon them than any thing else God therefore hath added this Motive of Fear that it may be a spur to quicken us when by the Corruption of Nature other Arguments are rendred less prevalent These Punishments shall indeed be undergone by refractory Sinners For they have as much as in them lies gone about to dissolve utterly the Community which is made up between God the Legislator and Men his People by infringing the Authority of the Divine Laws and the Dignity of Him who is to see that they be observed But it is only by such as These that these Punishments shall be undergone To others they are chiefly a Motive to Obedience and are further only as a reserve when all other means have proved ineffectual The case in respect of Punishments is much different betwixt our Lawgiver and Lawgivers on Earth Some of These are more forward to punish than to reward because Punishments do oftentimes increase their Treasuries and Rewards diminish them But our Lord is no way profited by the punishment of any neither in the rewarding them is his Abundance extenuated Much delight he takes in the Life of Men but he hath given us the greatest Assurances that he hath no pleasure in the death of Sinners His threatning therefore to punish them is that they may not be punished And truly though we may dread the Effects of God's Justice yet when he thereby shall awaken our Hearts that we may be the more secured unto Happiness as it may very much excite our Obedience so may it also our Love to God's Law even upon the account of threatning Eternal Punishments Theoph. I see out of the Eater there may be Meat and out of the Strong Sweetness What to common view is at the greatest distance from Love is hearer than what I could think an Engagement thereof to the Divine Law. Eubul Another Motive for the securing of Obedience to the Laws of Christ is their having stronger Assistances afforded for the Performance of them than under the Old Law there were The Holy Spirit will always joyn with our sincere Endeavours and will help our Infirmities And hereupon the Gospel and all the Laws of Jesus Christ are in Holy Writ called Spirit by reason of the Grace of God's Spirit preventing and enabling us in the doing of them and are therein put in opposition to the Mosaick Law which is term'd the Letter Thus is it 2 Cor. 3.6 God hath fitted us to be Ministers of the New Testament not of the Letter but of the Spirit i. e. not of the Old Law but of the Evangelical for the Letter killeth but the Spirit giveth Life i. e. The Spirit with its Assistances in this Law enables us to perform it and in so doing to obtain Life Hence it is that the Apostle as some very Learned Persons interpret him reckons more to the Constitution of a Christian than of other Men joyning Spirit to Soul and Body and giving that the precedence of the other two I pray God your whole Spirit Soul and Body may be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus 2 Thess 5.23 Not that This is a Substance distinct from the Soul and Body but a Principle we may call it which is wrought within us by the Blessed Spirit and is well expressed by the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of St. Paul the New Creation and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of St. Peter the Divine Nature whereby we are enabled to act those things which meerly by our Natural Powers we cannot reach unto And what is it that we cannot do if our Lord through the Blessed Spirit will lend us an Hand in the doing it I can do saith St. Paul all things through Christ that strengtheneth me and so may every good Christian say as well as he Which is a very great Encouragement to love these Laws in that they bring their Helps as well as their Rewards along with them Theoph. What you say Eubulus might be a great Encouragement to love these Laws were these Assistances such as you speak them to be But alas our Work seems to be little the less for them We must labour fight and strive and when we have done all which we are able we can see much of the Weakness of Men but little of the Strength of God and nothing
imagine that great expression of Omnipotence a Creation out of Nothing But it is a great satisfaction to the Understanding to know that Nothing is too hard for God and that it is but meet to believe that He who had Being and Life in himself from all Eternity could be the Entire Author and Conserver of Being and Life to all other things And Moses's Words viz. God said let there be Light and there was Light and so in other things of the World were Expressions Worthy of his Almightiness concerning whom they were spoken as signifying it was no less easie to Him to make the World than to speak the Word That which in Sacred Story too quickly follows Mans being made in so happy a Condition is his falling from it by the Allurements of Satan But even This though sad to relate gives us light in many things which otherwise we should never have known the reason of As why the Earth is so much enclined to Bryars Thistles and Weeds And why with so much Labour and Sweat we must Till it for our Bread. Why Men are naturally Prone to Evil and are so apt against their Reason to be led away by their Passions and Lusts Why Women in so much Sorrow and Pain do bring forth Children And why all Men must Dye and are allowed in respect of some other Creatures so short a time to Live. These things are taught by this Divine Book alone and though there have been among the Heathen Wise Men who have complained of them yet they knew not what to ascribe them to beside either Hard Chance or Hard Fate Mankinds Transgressing of a most equal and easie Command and the Corruption of our Nature thereupon and the Miseries and Death that followed as a Punishment unto all in that all had Sinned being in Tract of Time so far forgotten that 't is probable to Conjecture they would never by any of them have been thought of more But however this part of the History as was said is sad to Relate yet that which follows will give true cause of Comfort and Joy. For we are told That the Seed of the Woman should break the Serpents Head. Through That we are restored again to Gods Favour and from this early promise I suppose it is that He is termed the Lamb that was slain from the Beginning of the World. It is through Him that the Curse upon the Ground is in great measure turned into a Blessing Bryars and Thorns we can make a Fence of for the securing the Fruits they would Choke No Noxious Creature no Venemous Herb but is of Excellent use for the Welfare of Man and even the Threatning of our Eating Bread in the Sweat of our Brow is no less a Promise that if we Labour God will give us food Womans bringing forth Children in Pain and Sorrow may be undergon with Cheerfulness since They and all Men also shall be saved in Child-Bearing i. e. by a Child which was to be born of a Woman Death may Cease to be Terrible to us since of a Punishment it is made a Passage to a better Life And the Shortness of our Lives in Comparison of the Lives of some other Creatures need not be complain'd of since this is the whole of their Living of ours it is not And a few years in this World are in Gods Sight a sufficient Probation for an Eternal Life elsewhere And truly the Corruption of our Nature may not deject us since the Laws of our Lord who is the Seed of the Woman being by a Divine Power set home upon our Hearts will unless it be our own faults most certainly correct it We hence likewise are certified who is our irreconcileable Enemy how we are always to be aware of him and to suspect his Onsets though He be invisible to us How yet we may have assurance against him in that his Head is Bruised and if we resist him he will fly from us It would be altogether endless should I go about to remark all the Excellences of Sacred History which who is it can throughly do The important Things hitherto spoken of could not have been known without it and therein it may claim our Love some other things in Profane Authors which are in the Dark and mingled with Falsities we from thence may with a clearer Light discern And herein likewise it may call for Respect as due from us unto it I will instance in few of many Mans being said by Plato in his Phaedro to be at the first 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of both Sexes and afterwards to be cleaved in two doth somthing resemble Eve's being taken out of Adam Hesiod's Pandora who brought all sorts of Evil upon Mankind bears some Analogy with our first Mother's being the Author of our Fall and Misery Niobe's being turned into Stone from Sorrow for the Destruction of her Children may not amifs be referred to Lot's Wife who looking behind her contrary to Gods Command to see what became of Sodom where her Kinsfolks and not improbable some of her Children were left became a Pillar of Salt. And Nisus's Hair we may with some allowances derive from Sampson These being in all probability the real Truths of those Fables And who will doubt but the reputed Sacredness of an Helicon and Pyrene and the Rapturous Vein said to be by them conferred did arise from the Well of Beer at which the Children of Israel in an inspired manner Sung Spring up O Well Sing ye unto it The Princes digged c. Numb 21. The same may be said of several Rites used by the Heathens in their Temples and Sacrifices which it is more than likely were fetched from Gods Service prescribed to the Hebrews Nor this as we may justly think without the Craft of the Devil who endeavours to lessen the Honour which from them was to accrue unto God by making them in other places to belong unto himself We further Theophilus may say this of the Old Testament History That the larger Lines of it do evidently shew forth Gods immediate Hand either in Justice or in Mercy and plainly tell us that He punished or rewarded for such or such Reasons Thus the Destruction of the World by Water was because the Earth was Corrupt before God and filled with Violence And the saving of Noah and his Family was because Him God had seen Righteous before him in that Generation The like was there in the overthrow of Sodom and the preserving of just Lot. Thus also in the affairs of Abraham and his Seed the things of greater note leave us not to interpret doubtfully whether it was a Chance that happened unto them or was Gods manifest Power and Providence And truly there are such Contrivances from the Divine Wisdom in the managing and carrying on some particulars of this History as if the Holy Ghost had design'd by the most artful and surprizing Methods to engage our Affections And when we read them we must be very incredulous
pleasurable Entertainment is there for Holy Thoughts And whether we find him Curing Diseases Casting out Devils Feeding Multitudes with a Miracle Laying Command on the Wind and Sea and Raising the Dead Or whether we read him publickly Teaching or privately Instructing Praying in Secret unto God or appearing Gloriously in his Transfiguration How diversly may we be affected yet every way with Delight Yea if we look towards his Leaving of the World when in the Garden he Sweat as it were great drops of Blood under those Sins which in a Garden first took Birth If we consider his bitter Cross and Passion the Reproaches amidst his Torments and the Death that followed them though we Sympathize with him we yet cannot but love the Story For herein the wonderful work of our Redemption is compleated Here we see a Sacrifice of more worth than a World propitiatory for the Sins of all Mankind Because as Manhood was intimately conjoyned with the Godhead and made one Person He was Infinite who suffer'd and so paid our Price in a short Time which we ourSelves could not have done but by an Eternity of Torments If we read on and accompany our Lord to his Grave we shall find him after a shameful Death to be Honourably Buried wrapped in fine Linnen with Spices and laid in a Sepulchre in which never any before was laid And it may affect us with a secret Pleasure to see Him who was Conceiv'd within a Virgin 's Womb where no one Conceiv'd in Sin had before lain to be Buried as it were in a Virgin Sepulchre where no sinful Man's Body had ever been laid But what Joy may his Resurrection stir up in us after such endeavours to secure his Body if possible from Rising and when Risen to stifle the Truth of its being so It cannot but delight us to read of Angels descending from Heaven to rowl away the Stone before the Sepulchre and to attend upon our Lord in his leaving his Grave And it may almost be a pleasant doubt whether cheereth us the more their so kindly speaking to our Lords Friends that These went away though with some fear yet with great Joy or their terrifying the insolent Keepers that through Fear Those shook and became as Dead Men. If we are taken with Splendor we have it in the Angels appearance in Raiment white as Snow And also in the Resurrection of many Saints who after their Saviour had left his Grave came out of theirs and went into the Holy City and appeared unto many If Love and Kindness please us we have our Lord 's frequent shewing himself to his Disciples after his Rising And though a Crown was ready for him in the Heavens He yet cannot quickly leave Those who once had left all and followed him but continues among them Forty days speaking of the things pertaining to the Kingdom of God. These great and delightful things are succeeded by His Ascension into Heaven which is truly Great and highly pleasant to a Religious Soul Whether we consider the Cloud of Angels which received him The Powers of Darkness which he led Captive or the inestimable Gifts which he gave through the Holy Ghost Gifts which were worthy of him and such as no one else could bestow And what especially concerneth us Our Nature which was Created lower than the Angels is in Him Exalted far above them And to our Joy also we read That He is gone to prepare Mansions for us That where He is there we may be also This sure if any thing in the World can entitle History to the greatest Love may well entitle this to Ours Abundance more there is in the New Testament which I shall not now insist on though it be exceeding Delightful I thought good to recount that which more immediately related to our Redeemer because it is of such unspeakable Value unto us Theoph. In the particulars which you have given of it I have more than once thought of the words of Seneca Cum Sextium lego libet omnes casus provâ—care When I read Sextius 's Book I could even Challenge Fortune to do her Worst I have an Antidote there greater than all her Mischiefs What was height o Expression concerning Sextius's Philosophy is no more than Truth if applied to this History When Old Simeon had taken our Saviour into his Arms it was in good earnest that he said Lord now lettest thou thy Servant depart in Peace according to thy Word for mine Eyes have seen thy Salvation The World hath nothing worthy my Eye or Thought after such an inestimable Favour And truly when a Man with a right frame of Soul reads these things what can his Heart desire more How much may he be above all ordinary Joys How much above all ordinary Griefs And yet Eubulus how much soever these great things tend to the composing of all irregular Passions in me I cannot forbear the being very much disturbed when I consider there are some who look upon all these things as imposture and have endeavour'd to beat them d wn as such Surely were there no other Proofs the Sacredness and Love which all along breath in them might shew them to be of higher Original than what Deceit could reach unto And could an understanding Man be tempted to doubt of their Truth yet me thinks they should so far prevail upon him as the less to care whether any thing else were true or not Eubul But God be thanked Theophilus we have the greatest proofs of these Things for the Confirmation of our Faith and for its and our Defence against all the Oppositions of Unbelievers and the Carnal Reasonings of the World. Why should the Evangelists and Apostles go about to deceive the World in things of so great Importance Their whole design in making known the Gospel was so far as can be discerned none other than that Mankind should through it be happy And what injury had the whole World done them that they should in a matter which so highly concerned it impose thus upon it as they needs must have done had they not been absolutely sure of what they declared Untruths for the most part look at the interest of the spreaders of them and are always of a less extent confin'd to certain Persons or Places or Times and are not such as shall respect all Persons Places and Times so long as the World shall endure as these things manifestly do unless there shall be a most Envious and Evil Nature or an inordinate design of Praise or Profit in the Inventors But neither of these can be thought to have been in Those who first published these things Not an Envious and Evil Nature for who out of Envy would publish such things as all Wise and Serious Men would wish should be true if really they were not so Who out of Evil Nature would write and declare Laws to the World that should beget and propagate the greatest Sweetness of Temper An happy effect of Envy it would be to
to serve him But Men he indued with a Reasonable and Intelligent Soul by which they conceive what it is they do and why they do it And so having a sense of themselves and their own state and in some sort also of the Greatness and other Infinite Excellences of the Lord whom they serve Their Obedience alone of all Earthly Creatures may be termed the Grace of Obedience and They only have the Honour to be in strictness and propriety of Speech serviceable and obedient unto God. Yea when Men had deserv'd the Punishment of Death by breaking the Command of God He in infinite Mercy and Wisdom contriv'd a way for the saving them from Destruction by the pretious Death of his Son. And in relation hereunto He hath by that his Son given them Commands that are not grievous Laws that are righteous and good perfective of their Nature and truly useful to Society He vouchsafes Assistances from Heaven for the Performance of them and promises Everlasting Salvation after Death to those who sincerely observe them And lastly He sustains and preserves them even while they sin against Him when they could not breath did not his Providence afford them Air nor live did not he give them Bread So that God may say to These as he did to his Vineyard Isai 5. Judge I pray you between Me and Them What could have been done more unto them that I have not done And for which of all these good Works do you throw Servitude upon me What should more excite your Honour to me as a Father your Fear to me as a Master and your Love to me as a Friend than these things And if I am your Father where is mine Honour If I am your Master where is my Fear And if I am your Friend as none possibly can be more is this your Kindness to your Friend Do you thus requite the Lord ye foolish People and unwise to make him to serve by your Sins Theoph. You said truly that here it is that Disobedience hath its Loathsomness For where Disingenuity and Ingratitude do rise so high as here they infinitely do what deeper Stain can there possibly be And as one would wonder how any should be willing to carry it so ill towards a gracious God who hath beyond Expression deserved well of them so one would no less wonder that it could ever enter into the Heart of Man to say That God by his Decrees hath necessitated them to Disobedience That He cannot justly find fault because who is it that hath resisted his Will Eubul A Man would admire indeed that any should be so absurdly unreasonable For who would ever designedly bring himself into Dishonour and be the chief cause of that which is most odious in his own Eyes This no wise Man no nor one but tolerably in his Wits would ever do Let us but Attribute that Wisdom to Him whom we acknowledge to be infinitely Wise which in these Circumstances would never be wanting to any Man who hath Common Sense and Reason and we may be quickly satisfied that God compelleth no one to Vilifie his Holy Name his Image and his other Works and to bring them into the Service of the Devil to the great Satisfaction and Delight of that his Enemy Let us not therefore say It is through the Lord that we have done thus for we ought not to do the things which he hateth Let us not say He hath caused us to Err for the Lord hateth all Abomination and they that fear God love it not as the Son of Sirach excellently speaketh Chap. 15. Vers 11 12 13. Or as the Holy Ghost himself saith in St. James Let no Man say when he is tempted unto Evil he is tempted of God for God cannot be tempted with Evil neither tempteth he any one But every Man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own Lust and enticed Chap. 1.13.14 God hath no need of the Sinful Man and he hateth Evil even while it shall seem to be done that good may come And whosoever shall say let us do Evil that Good may come the Apostle telleth us their Damnation is just How can any one then imagine that God should necessitate Men to those Sins that strike directly at his Honour And bring him as far as possible and would yet further bring him could it be done into the worst of Servitudes Theoph. They highly dishonour God who by their Disobedience do carry themselves Contemptuously But yet those Persons who make Him Himself to be the moving Cause of all this do the more dishonour him because they represent him as such an one who is not worthy of better Services than Wicked Men would Subject him unto Most Horrid abusers they Both are of the most Righteous and Holy God. But why if I may lawfully enquire so far will he permit such things against Himself Why will he not rather force Men into due Obedience or else Cut them off A Wise Governor on Earth when he sees himself struck at his Favours abused his Laws vilified yea the Ruin of his Person wished will think the present time not too soon to punish such Notorious Offenders And while God letteth those alone who thus Sin against him using no restraints towards them nor making them Exemplary in their Punishments may he not seem to act below the Wisdom of Prudent Governours among Men Are not the Criminals encouraged to continue in their Wickedness And others also drawn by their Example into the same Excess of Iniquity And may not Gods Government of the World hereby seem remiss Eubul There is a great deal of difference Theophilus between God and Those who are Governors upon Earth The Frail Condition of These in the possibility of their Persons being really brought into Servitude or destroy'd and their Governments being weakned or wholly overthrown requireth often times the speedy Punishment of Those who are Notorious Offenders But God in his Person is secure from all the Evils that can be wish'd or attempted against him And however his Government may in appearance be less'ned yet in reality his Power and Dominion can never be endangered or diminished For as before was said he is infinitely perfect and so is no way subject to any Change for the Worse and therefore there is no need that God should make that haste to restrain or punish the Disobedient as Earthly Princes must oftentimes in Prudence do Add to this That many of those Sins against God which deserve the severest Punishments though they by no means can be for the Welfare of Society on Earth yet do not immediately strike at and disturb the Peace of the Community or at most not in any eminent degree And so the Necessity of Human Affairs doth not presently call for God as a Revenger Yet notwithstanding these things we may with Truth say Theophilus That some of those who do with an high Hand sin against Him God somtimes makes Examples of his Wrath and in them
doth vindicate his own Soveraignty and Power which they as much as in them lieth have brought under and trampled upon And this he so doth as that they themselves may look upon it to be God's just Hand and that others also may acknowledge it his doing But then Communities of Men which by their publick Sins make the Almighty to serve are always when those Sins are ripe punished in this World for they cannot with any reason be thought punishable in the next because all Bonds of Civil Society are utterly broken and evacuated by the Death of the Whole Yea and those Private Men who have contributed their share to the Sins of a Nation as such are also oftentimes in some respect punished in this World even after Death by Publick Calamities reaching their Children or other Relations in whom themselves are in a manner still here continued Which to one who rightly considers it sheweth forth God's Righteous Judgments upon them But because it is not always safe to pronounce That the untimely Deaths or unexpected Miseries of some particular Persons are an immediate Stroke of God upon them for their Disobedience for our Christian Charity will not permit this when we know no signal Crimes by them And the great Afflictions of some who are not greater Sinners than other Men and of some whom we have reason to esteem as good Men may caution us in this point not to be over-forward to Judge And because also we see a great many wicked Men to live and become old to be in no Troubles as other Men to die in peace and leave the rest of their Substance for their Babes Therefore we may affirm it as a Truth Viz. That God seeth it fit generally not to cut off those Men nor yet to force them into Obedience who by their Disobedience do thus make him to serve He seeth it fit generally not to cut them off that they may have space for Repentance Thus did he to the Church of Thyatira I gave her saith he space to Repent of her Fornication And for this end may he spare these dealing with them as the Lord did with the Barren Fig-Tree hoping that though they be not fruitful this year they will grow better the next And this the rather because from the thoughts of this Goodness of God unto them they may the more effectually be prevail'd upon to repent Despisest thou saith the Apostle the Riches of his Goodness and Forbearance and Long-suffering not knowing that the Goodness of God in this his Forbearance and Long-suffering leadeth thee to Repentance A Sorrow for former Sins and an Acknowledgment of God's Soveraignty for the future in Mens giving themselves up to his Service may arise from other Considerations but from none more directly or more forcibly than from that of his sparing them and suffering them to live that they may Repent and Turn unto him Neither may it be a small Motive for his not generally Cutting them off that in case they do not Repent there may from their Freedom from Punishment in this Life be afforded unto us a strong Proof that there will be Another Life after This in which those Sins which are here spared and Unrepented of shall most surely be punished God is a Righteous God and he hath told us plainly by his Prophet Nahum Chap. 1.3 That he will not acquit the Wicked And it is not Unobservable that These Words are put thus to wit The Lord is slow to Anger and great in Power and will not acquit the Wicked As much as to say Though he forbear long yet it is not as if he could not punish yea if they shall go on in their Disobedience and not Repent them of their Misdeeds they most certainly shall have the Reward of their Doings Now in that These Wicked Men who to the utmost of their Power make God to Serve do often live and dye without Punishments they must necessarily be punished after Death or else God will contrary to his Word acquit the Wicked But the Judge of the Earth will do Right though all Men shall be Lyars yet God cannot but be True And therefore he will not Cut them off that he may make them a strong Argument that there will be a Day of Punishments when this World is at an End with them And Lastly Theophilus we may not amiss think he will suffer them to Live that if They Repent not here they themselves may hereafter in the Other World confess that they are justly punished Though Gods sparing their Lives in so much Mercy when they had deserved to be struck Dead or sent Living into Hell were little minded by them on Earth it yet shall at the Great Tribunal have this effect upon them viz. To make them acknowledge that their Damnation is Just because They had so much favour shew'd them and they shut their Eyes upon it And surely as Gods Gracious Designs of Mens Turning unto him and being happy do take off whatever can be Objected against his not presently destroying the Disobedient So the Reputation of his Justice which will by this means be Exalted even among Those that in Hell shall suffer it may abundantly Vindicate Gods Government of the World from being slack and remiss though he do not immediately Condemn unto Death those who make him to Serve by their Sins Theoph. You have throughly satisfied me why God doth not presently Cut those off who are Rebellious But since all Power is his and with a Word He can do it why doth he not Force them into Obedience that his Sovereignty may be acknowledg'd by all and not opposed so much as in appearance by any Eubul One Reason may be Because he would have their Obedience to be their Virtue and such as shall become Rational Creatures to give He as Elihu saith Teacheth Them more than the Beasts of the Earth and maketh Them Wiser than the Fowles of Heaven that they may know what Good and what Evil is and may be sensible of the Favours that are shew'd unto them He hath given them a Will to choose or refuse what things are before them And hath planted Affections in their Souls by which Love and Gratitude may be Exercised Now when they shall endeavour to Understand what is truly Good and also what Gods Loving-kindness to them is when they shall choose that which is best and shall willingly serve Him whom they know to be the Lord of the World and their Lord Loving him for his Goodness and striving to express Thankfulness to him so far as they are able when I say they shall do this they will be Virtuous and shew themselves such as their Nature and Make require they should be But how unagreeable would it be for these Men to be forced contrary to their Mind and Will Wherein would they be Commendable should they do that which they could not help And how unsutable to Love and Gratitude is Violence and Constraint It is Love that is
neither we nor our Fathers were able to bear DISCOURSE the First THEOPHILVS I Have often thought Eubulus that one of the greatest Pleasures of a Mans Life is to be found there where Two Faithful Friends enjoy one another in Ingenuous and Profitable Discourses Communicating what they find to have been most taking with themselves and by united Thoughts and Searches discussing some Truths which otherwise would not so well have been known EVBVLVS I Suppose there are none whose Souls are any whit refined but will readily assent to what you say Theophilus And I am persuaded that though his Expression be very high he yet spake with a true Sense of Discursive Friendship who said Cum una mehercule Ambulatiuncula atque uno Sermone nostro omnes fructus Provinciae non confero Cic. I prefer one Walk and one Discourse of ours before all the Honour and Income of my Province Theoph. What relish Honours and Incomes have with others I know not and am little solicitous to know But sure I am I seem to myself not to want them while I have what I speak of which I see is no less esteem'd by You also Eubul The Converse of a Faithful Friend is never otherwise than pleasant to me But then I judge it most to be valued when by his Words I am made not only the more knowing but the better Having a sacred kind of Warmth raised within me by which I am more enabled to DO those Duties which are incumbent on me and to SVFFER those Evils which are so frequent in the World and which I must not expect to be altogether freed from Theoph. I thank you for what you now say because if I shall ask some such Discourses from you which I from the first have designed to do you cannot deny me And I should account it a great Pleasure hereafter when I possibly shall walk these Fields alone to remember that under this Tree I learned such Knowledge under that was instructed in such a Virtue Here I discerned how little these outward Things are to be trusted in There how reasonable it is to submit to the Divine Will and in every place that I both had and rightly made use of an Understanding and True Friend Eubul You may be confident I will not deny you any thing which shall tend to the promoting of such an Innocent and Virtuous Pleasure And I the rather shall yield to you in what you desire because I am sure it will be mine own more than your Advantage Having sufficiently experienced that many things well spoken by others have been Hints to you of deeper Enquiries and more grateful Discourses Theoph. If you have any such Opinion of my Freeness which I am endebted to my Friend if he will kindly accept of I will promise that you shall not complain as if it were less to you than to others And for a Proof hereof I will take the boldness to propose the Matter to be discoursed of Which unless you shall think otherwise shall be concerning The True Nature of the Divine Laws which as I conceive doth consist not meerly in the Excellence which they have in Themselves but in another Excellence also viz. That Loveliness if I may be allow'd to use the word which they carry in them in respect of us Eubul Your Conception of their Nature is no more than just and a better Subject you cannot find out Unto which I shall the more willingly speak what I can because if we may make a Judgment of those Laws from the usual Practice of Men either there is not the Loveliness you speak of in them or if there be as certainly in the highest manner there is it is very much slighted Theoph. 'T is too true that so it is And therefore I hope it will by Him who sees in secret be accounted as some Reverence and Respect shew'd unto them if when they are so little observed abroad we shall endeavour to search into their Perfections in private Especially since for this End we shall do it that our Love to them may be the greater And truly Eubulus the Royal Psalmist's Expression of so great Love to the Divine Law gave the Occasion of my now mentioning this Subject For reading those words O how I love thy Law It is my Meditation all the day methought I felt my Soul more than a little touched with them They seeming to proceed from a more than ordinary Affection in that good King. Eubul I do not wonder it was so with You who I know keep your Heart soft and tender and thereby fitted for right Impressions from the Holy Scriptures But your saying that those words seemed to proceed from a more than ordinary Affection doth not reach the thing home They not seemed only but really did come from an Heart full of Love to God's Laws And indeed Theophilus I think it no hard matter to discern a true Passion from one that is so only in shew This later will betray itself in somthing or other which by a Judicious Eye will easily be perceived While the other carrieth its Evidences along with it and without scruple is presently owned as genuine and sincere And surely no true Affection can be more convincingly express'd than this King 's was to the Divine Precepts His saying O how I love thy Law is to me no less than if he had said He could not declare how much he loved it His Love to it was greater than what his Words could arise unto It being only comprehensible to his Understanding and the inward Sentiments of his Soul yea almost too big for his Heart to contain Thus much yet he could say if that might any way shew forth the greatness of his Love God's Law was his Meditation all the day His Thoughts were continually taken up in it Theoph. If I had question'd the greatness of the Psalmist's Love unto it I assure you Eubulus I should not have been so much affected with his Words For according to that Rule Si vis me flere dolendum est Primum ipsi tibi A Passion would not over quickly be stirred up in me by him who I should think was himself insensible But that we may not mistake one another in our following Discourse it will be requisite to know what is here meant by the word Law it being capable of more than one Signification Pray therefore Eubulus let me have your sense of it Eubul By the Law of God I presume every one understands the Will of God which he in his Word hath declared But then because part only of that which we now acknowledge to be the Word of God was then written by the Law here is meant the Law given by Moses and that part of it especially which is Moral Although the Judicial for the Justice and Prudence of it and the Ceremonial for its Mysteriousness are not wholly to be excluded from the Law we speak of nor yet whatever else is contained in Holy Writ
Son to dye in our Room that the works of the Devil should be destroy'd in us and that we as was but meet for us to do should endeavour after Holiness of Life The Son of God therefore that He might be our Propitiation and that We might not be altogether unfit to whom so great Favours should be shewn cometh into the World to establish and promote Sobriety Righteousness and Godliness among Men. It pitied him to see those whom he had Created in such an Eminent Rank of Beings to wander in Darkness unable by all their Reasonings to find out those things that nearliest concern'd them and recommending upon uncertain grounds those that in some faint measures they did discern He hereupon reduceth them into right Paths giving them a true sight of their wretched Estate prescribing an Exact Rule to live by and settling it on a strong and sure Foundation Not only as agreeable to Mans Reason which though somtimes right is often dim and erroneous but as suteable to the Goodness of God which is absolutely perfect as being the Dictate of his Wisdom which cannot be deceived The resolution of his Will which is most Holy the Injunction of his Authority which is most unquestionable and the only way to a true and lasting Happiness Whence it is easie to discern that in infinite Love he gives his Laws unto us And the same Love from which these Laws proceeded did in an eminent manner confirm them and testifie their being Divine When he gave them he ascended into a Mount and therein there was indeed some agreeableness betwixt the giving of the Law by Moses and by Him. But this Mount did not burn with Fire nor had it Blackness and Darkness and Tempest as the other had to keep the People at a distance from him Neither were his Miracles of the severer kind as those of Old for the most part were He by an Almighty Power restored several to Life but none ever suffered Death by him He gave Health to more than a few for from him the Blind received their sight the Lame walked the Lepers were cleansed but he never hurt the Bodies of any that it might well be said He went about doing good But such a sweet-natured Establishment of his Laws we the less may wonder at as being no more than what might well be expected when such infinite and unspeakable Love had brought him into the World to give Laws A very great Inducement sure for us to love those Laws which were bottom'd on such a tender Affection to Mankind Theoph. It is pity that any should be willing to overthrow this so great Love in him who is our Lawgiver by saying that it cannot consist with the Divine Justice to punish an Innocent Person in the place of the Guilty That by an Act of Dominion God laid Affliction upon our Lord but no Punishment That therefore Christ was not a Propitiation for our Sins and consequently that there is no such Love as we talk of at the bottom of these Laws Eubul It is sad Theophilus that any should oppose a Truth so evident and advantageous For is it possible that any thing should be more plainly spoken in Holy Writ than that Christ suffered for our Sins the Just for the Vnjust That he came to give his Life a Ransom for many That he is the Propitiation for our Sins and that in due time he Died for the Vngodly And can any thing be more manifest than that our Lords dying in our stead was from his own Will and was the act of one who had a Power to do what he did and of one who could not sink under the Punishment and also an act which is conducive to the best Ends in the World the illustrating of the infinite Justice of God in punishing Sin of his infinite Mercy in saving Sinners and of his unspeakable Wisdom in doing it in such a way which the Contrivances of Men and Angels could never have reached unto And since God's Dominion is so much pleaded in this matter for the avoiding the Name of Punishment and making it to be only Affliction we may pertinently ask Why by his Dominion he might not Punish an Innocent Person offering himself in the place of the Offenders as well as throw Afflictions upon him as great and acute as Punishment itself could be And what difference is there to the Persons Sense who thus suffereth betwixt Afflictions and Punishments Surely These Men are very ill Asserters of the Divine Justice who while they deny that God may punish the Innocent instead of the Guilty though from such admirable Motives but now mentioned dare at the same time make him to have laid the Torments of the Cross upon his beloved Son without respect to any offence or fault in the least Which how unworthy a thought of God is it And how little are they Friends to the Sacred Laws who thus deprive them of their great Ornament the wonderful Love in which they were founded Theoph. But leaving these Men how Rational soever they would be thought cum ratione sua insanire if you have any thing more to say of this our Law-giver pray Eubulus do it Eubul This I think I may say truly That the Old Mosaick Law and the Blessings accruing to the Jews thereby were very much upon the Account of and in order unto our Lawgivers Coming into the World. And whosoever throughly instructed in Christianity will look into the Jewish State and the Laws and Customs of it will without much difficulty find that they were for the most part Types and Representations of him who was to come And they did betoken either the Excellency of his Person or the Purity and Holiness of his Laws or the Way how he would be a Ransom for us or the blessed Liberty we should have under his Government somthing or other relating unto him was signified by them as might easily be shewed from their Priesthood Sacrifices Washings Jubiles from the Land to which they were brought from the Person that brought them from the Cities of Refuge and such like VVhich things do shew forth the Greatness of our Lawgiver though while on Earth He for most Gracious Ends was in appearance mean. For what Man ever before Him was so Honour'd as to have the State and Government of a great Nation for so long a time to be formed as a Prophecy of Him And though Greatness as such is rather fitted to strike a Reverence than to allure Affections yet it may allure them when Majesty and Love are equally mingled and when our Lawgiver is Primarily not more so by his Greatness than by his Tenderness towards Men. The Apostle therefore to magnifie the Gospel and the Laws thereof speaks of them as given and declared by the Son of God God saith he who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto our Fathers by the Prophets hath in these last days spoken unto us by his SON whom